You can’t blame Matt Frattin for selective memory loss about his last spotlight moment as a Maple Leaf.

With Toronto up 4-2 in that fateful Game 7 in Boston some 14 months ago, that was Frattin forcing a turnover by the desperate Bruins at the Toronto line, then sweeping in for a breakaway on Tuukka Rask. He went to his backhand, but the puck slid off his stick wide. Less than four minutes remained and unbeknownst to him, the dagger hilt had just slid through Toronto’s hands.

Not that it was Frattin’s fault, but the whole Leaf bench froze in those dying minutes and the devastating overtime that followed. The Leafs were gone, and a few weeks later so was Frattin, as part of the Jonathan Bernier trade to Los Angeles.

“I haven’t even thought about that chance until now,” Frattin insisted Thursday in a phone interview. “All I can say is you have to bury those.”

But in making deals for both Frattin and free agent Leo Komarov on Tuesday, Toronto general manager Dave Nonis made a direct link to their departure and the team’s failure to get back in the playoffs last season. Frattin and Komarov play rugged and both push the envelope in the GM’s opinion.

Frattin certainly hopes he’ll get many more opportunities for clutch plays, now that faith has been shown tto bring him back from purgatory. Though the right winger averaged 12 minutes a night on a very good Kings’ team, he was dealt for another ‘name’ player, Marian Gaborik, who came from Columbus to help put the Kings over the top for the Cup. Frattin, meanwhile, played just four games for the Blue Jackets and was a black ace in their short playoff run.

Frattin would like to make his name the most memorable of this recent deal, in which the Leafs sent penalty killing specialist Jerry D’Amigo to the Jackets.

“I’m excited to be back,” Frattin said. “You don’t hear too many times of a player coming back to a team just a year after leaving. You definitely see the players you are traded for and want to show people that you have your own value.”

Frattin is now 26 and says he returns more mature and better schooled defensively thanks to coach Darryl Sutter in L.A. A member of the NHL’s youngest team when he was first in Toronto, he’ll play “wherever I fit in best”, though there are lots of holes on the Leafs’ bottom six. If he finds that 36-goal touch he had his graduating year at North Dakota, so much the better after getting 28 points in 82 total games as a Leaf, with two assists in the Boston series.

“I’m working out all summer in Edmonton (his hometown), I hope to get stronger and bring more speed to my game and chip in on offence,” Frattin said. “I had a good talk with (hockey operations VP) Dave Poulin. I’m looking forward to the season.”

Leafs' Matt Frattin will be better second time around

Forward's first interview since trade

You can’t blame Matt Frattin for selective memory loss about his last spotlight moment as a Maple Leaf.

With Toronto up 4-2 in that fateful Game 7 in Boston some 14 months ago, that was Frattin forcing a turnover by the desperate Bruins at the Toronto line, then sweeping in for a breakaway on Tuukka Rask. He went to his backhand, but the puck slid off his stick wide. Less than four minutes remained and unbeknownst to him, the dagger hilt had just slid through Toronto’s hands.

Not that it was Frattin’s fault, but the whole Leaf bench froze in those dying minutes and the devastating overtime that followed. The Leafs were gone, and a few weeks later so was Frattin, as part of the Jonathan Bernier trade to Los Angeles.